Pretec MMCplus 266X Extendable to 4GB, the fastest Flash Memory Card in the World

"Berlin, Germany, September 5, 2005 -- Pretec Electronics Corp., the 1st in the world to demonstrate MMC 4.0 card since 2004, and the 1st in the world to offer 4GB SD card since July 2005, has released 4GB MMCplus? 266X, the largest capacity MMC card, and the fastest flash memory card in the world, today at IFA 2005 (Hall 7 1B, Booth #124) in Berlin. Theoretical maximum speed of today?s popular MMC 3.x and SD 1.0 cards are 2.5MB/s (16X) and 12.5MB/s (83X) in SD?s favor, however, theoretical maximum speed of advanced specifications call for much higher speed of MMC 4.x at 52MB/s (346X) vs. SD 1.1 at 25MB/s (166X). Pretec 4GB MMCplus? 266X, with access speed up to 40MB/s, doubling the speed of recently announced Pretec 4GB SD card 133X, is the fastest small form factor flash memory card of any format in the world. Pretec 4GB MMCplus?s is available now for key customer sampling with unit price of $699 each, mass production is scheduled by Q4 of this year. Maximum capacity of SD card is 4GB under v.1.1 spec. and is also 4GB for MMC under v.4.1 spec. using so called ?Byte Addressing? scheme if the file format of FAT32 is adopted. Pretec 4GB MMCplus? can be configured to be fully compliant with MMC 4.1 specification under traditional ?Byte Addressing?; or alternatively Pretec 4GB MMC Plus can be configured under ?Sector Addressing? scheme pioneered last year by Mu-Card Alliance in which Pretec is a founding and major contribution member. Maximum capacity of Mu-Card is 2TB (2048GB), which can potentially soon become the maximum capacity of future specification of MMC card. Mu-card Alliance and MMCA has announced the joined forces in June 2005 (www.mmca.org/press/Mu_Card_Final.pdf). Pretec has also announced 266X iDisk series at CES 2005 in Las Vegas, the fastest USB flash drive in the world, available by the 2nd half of this year (www.pretec.com/PR/PR_iDisk_Tiny_166X_010605.htm); and e-Disk II announced in July, the 1st such bridging device in the world, an expandable USB flash disk by bundling SD/MMC cards which supports both SD 1.1 and MMC 4.x. Other than a flexible capacity USB Flash drive up to 4GB now (expandable to 2048GB), users can adopt e-Disk II as a low cost and very high speed USB SD/MMC card reader to transfer data between computers and IA devices. Application note can be downloaded from Pretec web for further information and explanation regarding the specification and the maximum capacity of SD/MMC cards. About Pretec Pretec? Electronics Corp. (http://www.pretec.com) offers a complete spectrum of small form factor memory cards and card readers such as CF, MMC, SD, and USB Flash Drive for the digital imaging, mobile communication, and industrial control markets. As the world?s 2nd company to offer CF card since 1995, Pretec has consistently demonstrated the highest capacity cards in the world; such as CF card 80MB, 128MB, 160MB, 320MB, 640MB, 1.5GB, 3GB, 6GB and 12GB CF card at various locations around the world for the past seven years; MMC card 1GB and 4GB; USB Flash Drive 8GB; and SD card 4GB. With more than 100 patents granted or filed, Pretec has also been offering the highest speed cards in the world such as CF 80X (2004), MMC 4.0 150X (2004), USB 166X/266X (2005), SD 133X (2005), MMCplus? 266X (2005); and smallest size USB Flash Disk in the world such as iDisk Tiny (?Best Gear of 2003? by TIME Magazine) and CU-Flash (2005). *Note: iDisk, iDisk Tiny, CU-Flash are trademarks of Pretec Electronics Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned herein are recognized as the property of their respective holders.
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